


kidnappings

by ThingsWeDo4_Love



Series: Howard's son [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 1000 words, Communication Failure, Father-Son Relationship, Howard Stark's Good Parenting, Kidnapping, Misunderstandings, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 03:49:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13941969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThingsWeDo4_Love/pseuds/ThingsWeDo4_Love
Summary: "You're talking about a man whose happiest day of his life was shipping me off to boarding school."This is what Tony thinks about his dad, but the truth is a bit more complex than that.Tony was kidnapped a couple of times, Howard had to do something.





	kidnappings

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Português brasileiro available: [Sequestros](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14112780) by [CoisasQFazemosPor_AMOR (ThingsWeDo4_Love)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThingsWeDo4_Love/pseuds/CoisasQFazemosPor_AMOR)



> English is not my first language so I apologize for the spelling and grammar mistakes.
> 
> So ... I hadn't planned to continue the previous work, but this idea came out to my mind and I couldn't not writing it.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

The first time he was informed that Tony was kidnapped he was dining on the terrace with his wife. The man he spoke with simply informed him that he possessed his son and wanted a certain amount of money.

Howard paid. $ 500,000 was nothing to him, let alone when compared to the life of his son with just five years old. Howard had already been kidnapped before and he would have paid that amount a thousand times if he could’ve made Tony to not have suffered from this trauma, especially at such a young age.

Two hours later he receives a call from NYPD saying that they had found his son wandering on a side road, apparently when the kidnappers received the money they dropped the boy in the first place that suited them.

When he arrived with his wife at the police department, Howard never thought he could be so relieved. On the way to the NYPD he couldn’t stop thinking if the kidnappers had done something to him? Injured him? Frightened him? He only thought of the little five-year-old boy wandering alone and afraid on an unfamiliar road, watching the day begin to turn night and wondering where are his parents who were supposed to protect and take care for him.

However, when he saw his son the only feeling he could feel was relief. Relief that he is alive, that he is safe.

Maria ran and reached him first, she hugged him and whispered words of comfort, which served both for her and for the boy.

Howard also wanted to hug his son and make sure he was okay, but he couldn't do it properly while Maria was with him in her arms. So he did something else instead. Say a few words. That was his mistake.

Instead of the calm, reassuring words that he wanted so much to say to the boy, the only things that came out of his mouth were words of disappointment and reprimands.

"Why did you go away from your bodyguard?", "Why can’t you behave for five minutes?", "How can you be kidnapped that way?"

All the fear and apprehension he had felt ever since he received the call informing his son's kidnapping was turning into sharp words directed at the poor boy who did nothing wrong. As he spoke the harsh words Tony looked at him with anger as Maria looked at him with disappointment.

Somehow he always managed to disappoint his family. It was his fault that Tony was kidnapped, now he made a pathetic attempt to try to prevent him from being kidnapped again, for him to be more careful, for him to be safe, but Howard was failing miserably.

He always could fail with his family, especially with his son.

The second time that this happens Howard decides to not pay the kidnappers. After the first time he looked for professional advice from private detectives and police officers that he had contact with. Everyone said that he shouldn’t pay the kidnappers, that if he continued to pay them they would continue to kidnap his son. So he didn’t pay them this time, but he almost did.

Unluckily Tony was only found on the third day, locked in a small, filthy room of an abandoned house on the outside of New York City. He was dirty and hungry, but otherwise he was fine.

Tony saw the police chief congratulating Howard for not having paid the ransom, telling the men that he did a good job. Yet as Howard looked at the little boy who stared at him with anger and rancor he couldn’t believe that he had done a good job at all.

He had failed as a father again.

While he watched his son eagerly eat a PB&J sandwich he could only think of how to prevent it from happening again. Tony had been six years less than a month, he was still young and a fragile little boy, not that Howard wouldn’t want to protect him when he grew up, but now it was a matter of urgency.

Tony shouldn’t go through this again. He didn’t want to keep failing over and over again.

One of his neighbors told him about boarding school. It was not a bad idea, Tony was clearly smarter than regular kids, he liked to learn and to take classes with his private tutors, but he didn’t have much contact with children of his own age. This shouldn’t be very healthy.

The bonus was that being a controlled environment would help prevent the kid for being kidnapped again.

When he talked about it with the boy he thought the kid would be excited, meet new kids with whom he could play and have fun, learn new things every day, have really intellectually challenges. Isn’t that what his son ever wanted?

Apparently not. Tony hasn’t been very happy, but the boy never really liked changes and to try new things, so maybe he was just throwing a tantrum because he didn’t want to change his routine.

On the day Tony went to the boarding school he had a small meeting with his friend, Obadiah Stane, he had brought him very good news. A rival company had agreed to merge with Stark Industries, in the past few months they were being very affected by that company and now they could finally breathe relieved.

"Your son is going to that boarding school today, right?" Obadiah asked.

"Yeah, I think today might be the best day of my life." He laughed. Everything was working out and soon Tony would be safe.

When Obadiah opened the door Tony was standing outside, probably listening to the adult’s conversation. He didn’t hear anything he shouldn’t, did he?

But he didn’t know that more than thirty years later Tony would be saying "You're talking about a man whose happiest day of his life was shipping me off to boarding school."

He has failed again and didn’t even know it.

**Author's Note:**

> If you didn't realized, Howard blames himself for Tony's kidnapping because he thinks the kidnappers were behind his money, the Stark industries money (what is truth) and that kidnap a child is the easiest way to get that.
> 
> Apparently I have something with exact numbers. Whispers in the Night had exactly 200 words and this one has exactly 1000 words ... I don't know what's going on through my mind.
> 
> I already have another idea for this series, but I'm not going to write it now because I'm not inspired enough for it, but when the inspiration comes I'll write it! I promise!!
> 
> I hope you have enjoyed it as much I have written it!


End file.
